This is an old post from 2016.
I went to the doctor and requested a chest x-ray.
It showed an opaque shadow on my right lung.
What prompted me to go to the doctor was a creeping sense of fatigue…
And a kind of breathlessness that I’ve never had before.
The good news was that it isn’t cancer….
The bad news is that it’s pneumonia.
I was in denial at first because I felt mostly OK …and thought of pneumonia as a kind of triple x-rated cold.
I did not know that pneumonia begins without symptoms.
Today I have the symptoms of nausea, headache and a passionate urge to sleep.
I will do my best to keep up with comments but it may take me a couple of days to go through them.
If you have the following symptoms get thee to a doctor.
The symptoms are mild at first but they quickly worsen in older people or in people with compromised immune systems.
C. pneumoniae:
• Gradual onset, which may show improvement before worsening again; incubation period is 3-4 weeks.
• Initial nonspecific upper respiratory tract infection symptoms lead on to bronchitic or pneumonic features.
• Most of those infected remain quite well or are asymptomatic.
• Cough with scanty sputum is a prominent feature.
• Hoarseness is a common feature.
• Headache affects the majority of symptomatic sufferers.
• Fever is relatively unusual.
• Symptoms may drag on for weeks or months, despite a course of appropriate antibiotics.
• Where it causes significant problems, this may be due to secondary infection or co-existing illness – eg, diabetes.
Right now I have blinding headache…and I’m taking a course of Empiric Antibiotics because we aren’t sure which type of pneumonia I have….but given the onset my guess is C. pneumoniae:
Art by Rob Goldstein 